As 2028 looms, Jennifer Siebel Newsom faces increased conservative attacks

Conservatives are unloading a barrage of attacks on Jennifer Siebel Newsom, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife — signaling an early start to a contentious and deeply personal race for president in the post-Trump era.

Presidential hopefuls’ spouses have long been a key part of bids for the White House, and they often try to humanize their partners. And while future first ladies have been scrutinized on the trail and in office — from Michelle Obama battling racial stereotypes of being described as an “angry Black woman” to coverage of Laura Bush’s teenage car accident that killed a friend — this era of polarized social media has only supercharged the spotlight on politicians’ partners, operatives and aides say.

“A first lady or any political spouse is, by definition, a supporting actor,” said Michael LaRosa, who served as former first lady Jill Biden’s top spokesperson and praised both Newsoms. “If they become the story, they risk no longer being a political asset to the candidate, … and their team risks losing its effectiveness to serve both of them.”

Two years removed from the presidential primaries, few would-be 2028ers’ spouses have faced as many attacks as Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and activist.

In recent weeks, conservative accounts on social media have circulated clips of Siebel Newsom speaking at public events throughout the years, where her jargon-filled responses became fodder for conservative outrage. The barrage comes as opponents race to define the California governor early — and Republicans look to undermine one of the early leading contenders for the Democratic nomination.

The videos of Siebel Newsom, who describes her views as progressive, covered a range of topics: from why she chose the title of California’s “first partner” to her views on gender stereotypes and parenting. In one clip, she raised concerns about the influence of the manosphere on young boys, including her son, whom she revealed thinks far-right influencer Andrew Tate is “pretty cool” despite her son being raised in what she described as one of the “most progressive households.”

The clips of the first partner served a dual purpose, operatives say: to portray her (and by extension, Gavin Newsom) as a “woke” elitist — a categorization that has plagued Democrats with voters — and to go viral.

“The Newsoms are the perfect example of why people hate on California,” RNC regional communications director Nick Poche said.

Despite Siebel Newsom’s modest national profile, the clips quickly gained traction, racking up millions of views and spreading rapidly across the MAGA media ecosystem: in television segments, digital news stories and on the shows of several popular conservative pundits. One of the clips even prompted responses from presidential son Donald Trump Jr. and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.

As the wave of coverage in conservative media ensued, public interest in Siebel Newsom also surged. Google Search activity around her skyrocketed, according to an analysis from the newsletter Chaotic Era.

The governor’s camp has pushed back against the attacks on Siebel Newsom, as his press aides publicly chide Republican influencers and others who’ve shared the posts on social media.

It’s a response consistent with Gavin Newsom’s own increasingly combative social media presence over the last year as he embraces a “fight fire with fire” strategy, with the governor and his staff regularly trolling President Donald Trump and other MAGA figures with memes and artificial intelligence-generated images. The governor says his approach is about “holding up a mirror” to the absurdity of behavior normalized by Trump.

But a Newsom adviser, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic, said the attacks on Siebel Newsom have also invoked a sense of disgust and shock. The adviser stressed that Newsom and his team have been careful not to engage with attacks on Melania Trump, the first lady.

“Some of these attacks are just very, very low,” the aide said. “We’ve been leaning in a little bit more and calling it out. You don’t get a free pass here just because you’re a MAGA troll online.”

And a spokesperson for Siebel Newsom brushed off the attacks in a statement. "It’s no surprise that the MAGA world is once again trying to distract from its own failures by targeting women," Mackenzie Smith said. "If standing up for women, children, and their futures is considered too radical, that says far more about the state of our public discourse than it does about her values."

For the Newsoms, the early attention is likely to not play any serious role in their 2028 decision-making process. But the speed and scale of the media attacks on Siebel Newsom are likely just the first in a series for presidential hopefuls’ partners, a broader reflection of how social media has eroded political boundaries in modern presidential campaigns.

“Social media has made everything different from the way politics used to be,” said Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary to George W. Bush. He described the pre-social media era as having a “much more genteel sense of politics,” adding: “Even though things were rough and tumble between the candidates, families were generally off limits.”

It’s unclear how active Siebel Newsom will be on the campaign trail if her husband were to run, with recent political spouses taking different paths. Siebel Newsom has often been outspoken as California’s first partner, helping lead policy efforts to defend reproductive rights, regulate ultra-processed foods, fight social media addiction and improve early childhood health.

The Newsom aide argues Siebel Newsom is being targeted, in part, because Republicans fear she’s a powerful surrogate.

But Melania Trump, for example, has played only a small role in her husband’s political career, occasionally appearing at his side but rarely making her own political travel or speeches.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, was, by contrast, more active on the 2024 campaign trail. And Michelle Obama has regularly been more popular than her presidential husband in public polls, becoming a bonafide draw that has few modern comparisons among political partners.

Democrats have regularly hoped to draft her into running for office herself, something she has constantly rebuffed.

But the intense scrutiny Siebel Newsom faces now could also ultimately benefit her — and her husband’s — political fortunes, if she chooses to be an active part of a future campaign, LaRosa argued.

“The Newsoms are different. They are both far more media-savvy for the political age we are in and better equipped to punch back against smears and lies,” he said. “Attacks on a spouse almost always backfires, turning both of the candidate and the spouse into more sympathetic figures than the attackers ever anticipated.”

Dustin Gardiner contributed to this report.